Official MLBlog of the Kansas City Royals front office.

Ned Yost media session: June 14

This afternoon, the Royals selected the contract of right-handed pitcher Roman Colon from Omaha and optioned first baseman Clint Robinson to the Storm Chasers. When Manager Ned Yost met with the media this afternoon, the transaction was the first topic. The first question asked involved why the Royals brought up another pitcher even though they have more National League games to play this weekend. Yost simply answered the question with the way the games have been going lately, their bullpen is quite over used; therefore, they desperately need another fresh arm out there in the pen. He said Greg Holland and Aaron Crow have been used on two consecutive days and Kelvin Herrera was used for two frames last night. This means they probably will not have Crow or Holland, or possibly Herrera either, available tonight so they needed another arm. He went on to say it is not only protection for the team during the game, but also the players. With the extra arm those who need rest will be able to do so and they will not have to worry about overuse or possible injury. They don’t know how long Colon will be up here and it could be as little as a day, but it all depends on what happens over the course of the upcoming games including tonight.

Robinson’s short stay with the big league club in Kansas City was the next talking point. Yost said it was tough since he was only up here for a small amount of time and only saw action in four pinch-hit at-bats. He said every situation he was put in came against seventh inning guys or closers so it was tough for him. He went on to say that it would not only be tough for a young guy like him, but any guy would have a difficult time pinch hitting in general and especially in those situations. Yost felt that Robinson did a very good job while he was here and it would be a different story if they didn’t have the huge need in the bullpen.

The Royals’ depth and impressive farm system was brought up next by the media. Yost said it is very rare to have such a talented group of players around the farm system offering flexibility to the big league club like the Royals have. He said general managers tend to strive to have that flexibility and that it was certainly Kansas City GM Dayton Moore’s intent. He said Moore worked all winter to give them flexibility so that no matter what came up, they would be able to handle it and adjust off of it. He then said they knew going into the season they would probably lean heavy on that flexibility the first half of the year and then the starters the second half. So far that has held true for the Royals especially with injuries and shaky starts from pitchers and Yost believes they have done well to this point.

Yesterday’s walk-off win was the last topic of discussion during Yost’s media session this afternoon. He said it was a very exciting way to win and especially since they had not had a walk-off win all season. He said he believed all along the hitting would get better as the year progressed and you are starting to see signs of that now. He said that was a win that lifts everyone’s spirits and it was huge. He believes it is something you can build off of and see more success because of it.

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